


A Kara/James Ficlet Collection

by alessandralee



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-08 20:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5512862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of all my shorter Kara/James ficlets. Title forthcoming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Snowball Fight

Some nights Kara goes home feeling like a failure; she’s starting to learn that disappointment comes with the job.

And sometimes she goes home feeling like she’s on top of the world.

(And for a girl who can fly, that feeling is often literal.)

Tonight is one of those nights, and she’s in the mood to indulge. In the middle of December that means flying low through the suburbs just outside the city.

She shouldn’t, but it’s dark out and she’s checked repeatedly to make sure none of Maxwell Lord’s drones are following her.

It feels good to see all of this from above. Sometimes she gets so caught up in the bigger picture of saving Earth from Astra’s giant alien threat.

It can be overwhelming.

But this? This is easier to process.

Protect all these families with the lights shining bright alone their rooftops and through their windows. Protect the parents driving home from work, and the little girl she can see lighting a menorah inside that house on the corner.

After all, what is a planet if not the people who inhabit it?

And what is a night of fighting aliens without a sweet treat to reward herself?

It certainly beats another round of sparring at the DEO. And tonight she’s in the mood for the peanut butter hot chocolate from the café near work.

Lucky for her, she keeps a change of clothes in her desk, easily accessed via the balcony off Cat Grant’s office.

She takes the scenic route, careful to fly high enough to avoid detection. From this far up, downtown National City looks like another set of Christmas lights.

She lands softly on Cat’s snowy balcony and fishes the key to the door out of her boot. Below, she can see someone just leaving the building.

James Olsen.

He probably stayed late to keep up with Supergirl’s latest exploits. Maybe she’ll try to lay low until Christmas, to give everyone a little break.

(As if she ever has a say in where and when Supergirl is needed.)

With her enhanced hearing, Kara notices a loud chorus of laughter from the field next to the local high school. It sounds like a snowball fight.

That gives her an idea.

Quickly, she packs together a ball of snow from the balcony floor. Then she aims it straight for James’s back, careful not to put too much force behind it.

The last thing she needs is have to take him to the hospital because of her own strength.

As expected, it makes contact right between his shoulder blades.

James spins around, completely confused until he thinks to look up.

Seconds later, Kara’s phone chimes from the inside pocket of her costume.

Use of powers = no fair

She quickly texts back.

Give me 5 minutes to change and I’ll give you a free shot.

She rushes into Cat’s office, then to the staff bathroom to change into her street clothes. She doesn’t need the coat or the scarf or the gloves, but in this weather she’ll stick out like a sore thumb without them.

It’s only been three minutes (most of which was spent waiting on the elevator) when she walks out into the night, but James is nowhere to be found.

Until a snowball splatters off her shoulder and onto her cheek and she turns to find him crouched beside a potted plant.

Sometimes quick thinking trumps superpowers.

But not for long.


	2. Lonely

“Rough day the office?” James asks, and it startles Kara, because even super hearing doesn’t make up for being totally lost in her own thoughts.

She shrugs.

“I thought I’d feel better about having Cat off my back about the whole Supergirl thing,” she admits.

James takes a seat next to her on the couch in their secret work base. The computers hum softly in the background, making a comforting white noise despite the fact that Winn went home a while ago.

“She was going to fire you,” he reminds her. “She didn’t give you a choice.”  
Kara sighs. He’s right. He’s absolutely 100% and she knows logically that she made the right choice. But sometimes it’s harder to convince your heart than your head.

“I know,” she tells him. “But for a second it was nice to have someone as… aspirational? Is that a word? Someone who’s accomplished so much? It was nice to have someone like that in my corner.”

James nods like he understands.

“Like having Superman think you’re good enough to work with him,” he admits.

Kara laughs.

“Yeah, like that.”

Maybe not exactly, but it’s close enough to make her feel better, close enough to make her feel understood.

“Maybe Hank Henshaw isn’t as aspirational,” he puts emphasis on that last word, “as Cat Grant, but I’d say having a whole secret government organization willing and eager to work with you is pretty impressive.”

“That’s different,” Kara tells him. It’s hard to articulate exactly how, but it is.

The DEO wants her because of her powers, because of her origins. Cat’s interest in Supergirl is about her future, the things she can mean.

She wants to mean something to National City, the way Clark does to Metropolis (and the entire planet, really). Cat believing that she could be, both as Kara and as Supergirl was a step in that direction.

“In that case, I guess you’ll just have to settle for my full support,” he tells her.  
He’s joking, or at least trying to cheer her up, but Kara studies him for a minute.

James Olsen, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. Clark might be more than human, but he can’t take the photos and star in them. That’s James’s accomplishment first and foremost.

And he’s her friend. He’s her confidant. 

Having someone like that in her corner makes up for the fact that she’s gone back to being Cat’s unimpressive assistant.

For now.


End file.
